I have a confession to make: I don’t shop at gourmet specialty stores.

And it gets worse. I also don’t shop at outdoor markets, farmers’ markets, organic stores, or even the organic aisle of the regular grocery store.

I love to cook, but I’m a student working as an intern (read: unpaid labor) during a recession. I don’t have any money to put toward San Marzano tomatoes, good Parmesan cheese, or even expensive ham. I buy a lot of cheap brands, stock up during sales, and tend to peruse the butcher’s case for whatever is on sale. To my friends, I’m some sort of gourmet cook; to my boyfriend “une vraie cuisinière.” But most people who consider themselves to be gourmet would look at my shopping choices and balk.

The truth of the matter is that my way of shopping and cooking is perfect for the economic time we’re living in, though, and it’s not the first time that people have relied on technique instead of high-quality ingredients to make dinnertime special.

Don’t get me wrong: I love the fact that the trend in recipes today is to call for “the best” tomatoes, beef, herbs, etc. But some of us can’t afford to seek out the best organic produce for a weeknight dinner. Italian recipes, for example, demand high-quality ingredients. But I look to one of the other highly regarded schools of cooking, the French, for my inspiration.

Italian vs. French

So many Italian recipes seem daunting to the home cook because of the relatively small number of ingredients. Melone e prosciutto or insalata caprese are two dishes that are little more than the sum of their parts: excellent melon and Parma ham or tomatoes and buffalo-milk mozzarella are all you need to make these dishes shine. (Note: The food of the Italian poor is much closer to the cuisine to which I am referring. Dishes like panzanella were invented to get the most out of every ingredient.)

French recipes, on the other hand, often call for making complicated sauces or cooking things for hours on end, something that can seem even more daunting than shelling out for buffalo mozzarella. The secret is that many of these recipes feature ingredients that are available to all home cooks, even those who are just shopping at the tiny local grocery store. These recipes were developed in an economic climate like ours, where expensive meat had to be stretched as far as possible and taste had to be found in even the most unassuming, basic ingredients.

Of course, the techniques I’m describing as “complicated” really aren’t that bad, as Julia Child proved to us so many years ago, and with a little bit of practice, you can produce gourmet dishes, even on a recession budget. Here are a few to get you started, but you should definitely look into Julia and other American chefs who have mastered the art of French cooking and put out books in cups and tablespoons–and in English!

1. Roux

French cuisine often seems to be based in heavy, creamy sauces. While this is not always the case, many French dishes find their bases in a simple roux: butter cooked with flour and used as a thickening agent. Once you master the technique of the roux, it can be used to thicken anything, from sauce to stew. Simply cook equal parts of butter and flour over medium heat, stirring to keep smooth. When the flour just begins to darken from white to pale yellow, it’s cooked, and the paste can be used to thicken liquids. Adding warmed milk to the mixture makes one of the most quintessential of French sauces: béchamel.

2. The Maillard Reaction

The best way to coax flavor out of any cut of meat is to remember that brown on the outside means flavor. Use a very hot pan to sear meat on the outside before you proceed with any dish.

3. Slow Cooking

The popularity of slow cookers and pressure cookers means that many of these classic dishes have already come out of the woodwork, but even just a sturdy pot with a lid can start you on your way to beef bourguignonne, a sort of French stew made with red wine. These dishes are very forgiving: just brown your meat (cheap, tough cuts of meat work well because they’re full of flavor), add liquid such as wine, and cook for two to five hours. Add root vegetables or onions, keeping in mind that browning on the outside caramelizes the sugars in vegetables and is therefore a good idea.

I first came to France when I was 14, and I was shocked and very pleased to learn about the emphasis placed on lunch. Every day, my school shut down for two hours so that students could go home and eat the meal with their families. I, of course, was used to a typical school cafeteria where the food was questionable at best and where we often made do with bagels and muffins instead of sampling the hot “meal” being served. But even the cafeteria meals I ate in France (we lived too far from school to go home) were lovely–they had options such as cordon bleu (chicken stuffed with Swiss cheese and ham) and other meals with multiple courses, including salad, cheese, and dessert.

At university, lunch became a bit of an afterthought. I never had a standard lunch period, and I usually found time to eat leftovers whenever I could. But since entering the workforce, things have changed substantially. Most French companies still give employees an hour off for lunch, but because I work for a television station with a nightly news program, I don’t come into work until 11:00. I could go out and grab a sandwich, but I prefer to make and bring my own meals. I have only a few criteria: they have to be simple and quick to make the night before and they have to be tasty at room temperature (we have no microwave). Because I eat at my desk, I also try to avoid strong-smelling foods–there’s no reason to annoy my new co-workers.

Here are a few of my most recent lunch ideas. They’re full of fiber and protein, so I stay full, and they’re also fine at room temperature, which means you can keep the containers at your desk. Enjoy!

1. Tomato and White Bean Salad

Beans are a great source of protein, and when you get them from a can, they’re a snap to prepare. I mix white beans with halved cherry tomatoes, dried basil, salt, pepper, and a little olive oil the night before and leave it on the counter in a Tupperware container (refrigeration alters the flavor of tomatoes). Leaving the mixture out overnight allows the flavors to meld, and by lunchtime, this simple combo is quite tasty. The tomatoes release their juices and mix with the olive oil, and a nice roll to sop up the liquid makes this a good meal.

“What do you expect me to say to that? Huh? What do you expect me to do?”

Okay, so those may not be the best words to throw out in a relationship (and saying them was definitely not one of my proudest moments), but just about everyone has either heard or dished out these or similar words during a confrontation with a significant other. What they might not have witnessed comes next:

“Slow down! I can’t understand you.”

The Daydream

When I first came to France, it was a sort of faraway dream of mine—and of many others I knew—to date a French man. When you develop the idea of dating someone from another country, the first things that come to mind are pretty nice. American girls who picture dating French men imagine romantic evenings over red wine and picnics on the Seine…everything you see in the movies. What they neglect to remember is that the movies lie about basically everything–no one I know has had the same kind of fairy-tale relationship from romantic comedies, and no one ever has the perfect bicultural relationship, either.

Which Language to Choose?

Most bilingual relationships are predominantly conducted in one of the two major languages that the couple speaks–if one of you didn’t at least have some grasp of the other’s language, it would be nearly impossible to communicate. I am, both officially and by the standards of most French people, fluent in French, so French is the language of my relationship.

But in most bilingual relationships, there come reasons to venture into the second language. The person whose language is not being used can feel trapped by their lack of communicative skills in their second tongue, or friends of one member of the couple may not be as bilingual as the couple is and will necessitate a switch.

Chances are, you know the food of the Italian poor: Sunday gravy, pizza, pasta, and meatballs.

These foods came over with Italian immigrants from the poorer regions of the south of Italy, like Naples and Sicily. They were treasured by families and guarded as a connection to the homeland. The foods evolved through time and became the massive pizzas, heavy gravies, and stick-to-your-ribs meals that we Americans now think of when we consider Italian food.

Not so for the polentoni di merda, as my brother (ever the proud half-Sicilian) calls the northerners: rotten polenta-eaters.

Northern Italian Comfort Food, With a Twist

Foods like spaghetti, which we now take for granted, were hardly ever eaten by the Northerners until pasta companies began selling mass-produced dried pasta. Instead, gnocchi for the Romans was made–not with the familiar potato, but with semolina. And more often than on spaghetti, ragù was served atop a mound of polenta.

I’m proud to have my southern Italian heritage, but unlike many Italians, I’ve got nothing against the northerners: I have them to thank for one of my favorite winter breakfasts.

This sweet polenta with hazelnuts recipe is one that I invented to use up extra cornmeal, but now I often cook it up on a cool winter morning before I head out into the slush. This is definitely not a typical northern presentation of the beloved Italian polenta, but I love it, and I’m sure you will, too.

Note: Many Italian nonne would gasp at the fact that I add my liquid to the polenta in batches, as with risotto. They would balk when they see that I sometimes forget to stir my polenta in only one direction. But in the end, my method works for soft and smooth polenta, and so I’ll stick with it.

Tautavel is a relatively small village in Aude, close to the Spanish border. It is also the self-proclaimed European center of prehistory. Upon exploration of the Prehistory Museum in Tautavel, one can begin to understand where the village founds its claim, as well as what makes the rest of this region so captivating.

A Part Of France Left Untouched

Wandering through the museum, I came upon a familiar diagram: I had seen pictures of fossil layers in natural science textbooks. Normally, I would have passed by such a drawing without a second glance, but something made me stop and try to get some sense of the numbers so big that they exceed comprehension. Compared to the Riviera, with bodies crammed like Niçois anchovies on the beaches or to nearby Barcelona, where the nightlife never ends, this whole area of France, seemingly so untouched by man, is actually a place that holds the human handprint even stronger than its neighbors.

Much of Europe has been modernized, either built up into enterprises or knocked down during the Second World War. Tourists like to pose in front of that which has held on, still standing, an ancient tower sticking out like a sore thumb in an otherwise industrial and anonymous city, shrapnel still lodged into the sides of its stones. To Americans, these buildings seem so old, so full of stories. I have visited these cities. I have fallen in love with many of them. But this country is vastly different.

Before I moved to France, one of the biggest warnings I got was about “culture shock,” but I just laughed. It wasn’t as though I was leaving for a hut in a third world village without potable water. Whenever I had to deal with the post office closing at midday on Wednesday or Monoprix going on strike, I jokingly blamed it on culture shock, the ever invisible, ever looming bad guy. It wasn’t until I returned to North America that I actually experienced culture shock: suddenly jolted back into my old patterns, I finally realized how slowly and invisibly my attitude towards the simplest things had been changing. It all had to do with one thing: time.

How the French See Time

Time in France and time in America are not the same. In France, time is an approximate concept. “Sept heures” can mean fifteen or even twenty past seven. This tendency is just a symptom of the real difference between the two cultures: whereas the American culture is based on “faire,” to do, to achieve, to accomplish, to make, French culture is based on “être,” to be.

In America, we run our lives with day planners and calendars. We plan each minute of our days down to our twenty-five minute lunch breaks. In France, if it doesn’t get done today, it will get done tomorrow; if there is something better to do, your appointments are insignificant.

Fashion in Paris is everywhere… although maybe not in the way you may expect. Paris is the famous home of haute couture fashion houses and famous names like Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and while these names are still omnipresent on the famous Champs Elysées, I was much more accustomed to seeing these super-expensive items in my old city of New York: here in Paris, people tend to make fashion their own, and, especially with the younger generation, this has nothing to do with items that cost more than fifty euros.

Parisians create fashion every day when they get dressed: I’ve never seen a Parisian going out in pajamas or grungy sweats like so many Americans tend to do. It seems effortless, and I often wonder how they do it, but after observing for several months, I’ve finally learned something from them. Parisians are big on two basic themes that make them exude fashionable qualities: layering and accessorizing.

How The Parisians Build Their Fashion Sense

Layering may seem old hat in the States, but the Parisians have been throwing dresses over jeans for much longer than the trend has been present in American fashion magazines. Throwing on a little sweater turns a great dress into an amazing outfit. The Parisians seem to have an innate ability for layering, and somehow they turn a closet full of basic staples into a new and amazing outfit every day.

With the financial crisis still in the air and most people counting every last penny, you may not think that now is the prime time for travel. But sometimes a little trip is just the thing to boost your spirits, and there is no city like Paris to lift you out of the blues.

Paris is famous for haute couture and famous restaurants, but there’s more to the City of Lights than just spending money. Now is as good a time as any to approach Paris like a local and enjoy the French capital without putting pressure on your pocketbook.

First and foremost: walk

Paris is a beautiful historic capital filled with architecture from the Belle Epoque, and walking is the perfect way to see it. Stroll across the famous Pont Alexandre III, with its golden statues and molding. Take a stroll down the rue de Grenelle to see some of the beautiful buildings that make up the embassies and homes official French government business.

Montmartre is a completely different style, with tiny winding streets and surprises along every narrow sidewalk. Take a digital camera with you: pictures you take yourself are worth so much more than overpriced and overused postcards you can buy on every street corner.